The first snowstorm to hit Rochester this year could not stop students from having a fun filled night of “gambling.” Student Program Board (SPB) hosted their annual Casino Night on Saturday, Jan. 19.

The theme this year was “A Night in Italy” in which students played traditional casino games such as blackjack and poker, in order to win tickets to be entered in a prize drawing. At the end of the night, SPB announced they would be bringing Blackbear and KYLE to campus for the annual SPB Spring Concert.

SPB spent months planning the event. Most of the planning was done by Annual Events Director Guiseppe Giammalva and Main Stage Director Starr Brown. Giammalva and Brown both thought it would be a good idea to bring a hypnotist and a magician to Casino Night.

“Eric the hypnotist and Joseph the magician that were both there, we found them both at a conference we went to, and we were both really impressed by them and were like let’s bring them to Casino Night,” Brown said.

At the event, students were able to create light up keychains with their faces on them, drink coasters with their names engraved on them, get hypnotized and win one of 27 prizes. A few of the prizes consisted of a Nintendo Switch, Michael Kors purse, PlayStation 4, 40” TV, and a chance to meet Blackbear and KYLE at the spring concert.

After hosting Casino Night last year, SPB decided to do a bit of reformatting for the event in order to make it worthwhile for both the students and performers. Some of the biggest changes consisted of bringing two acts to the event, and when they announced the prize winners.

“Since it’s an annual event it’s always trying to change it up so people are still interested in it,” Brown said. “…But we kind of reformatted it where we had the two performers instead of one and the one was always at the end of the night after all the prizes were announced and a lot of students weren’t sticking around for that so that…was probably the biggest change.”

For many students on campus, Casino Night gives them a chance to take a break away from their studies and unwind.

“Casino Night is one of my favorite events on campus,” student Anthony Alu said. “It’s a lot of fun to get together with friends and play games.”

“I hope students take away that there’s always something to do on campus and that they don’t have to go home every weekend,” Brown said. “Student Program Board and a lot of other organizations on campus work hard to plan and promote events that students will like and enjoy, and have fun attending.”

The next SPB event will be Coffeehouse with live music from The Icarus Account at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 24 in The Habitat.